The Life of Blessed Bernard of Tiron life of Blessed Bernard of Tiron

CHAPTER 1 Bernard's Education and Monastic Life in the Monastery of Saint-Cyprien

CHAPTER I Bernard's Education and Monastic Life in the Monastery of Saint-Cyprien 6. Bernard, a native of Ponthieu1 in the territory of Abbeville , was born to honest and religious parents, who did hospice and humanitarian work and, insofar as their means allowed, diligently ministered to Christ in the form of His poorest members. They designated him for a liberal education, and by heavenly grace he took pleasure in his studies from the cradle. He applied himself easily to all that he was taught, and he was so well educated that he always possessed considerable abilities in grammar and dialectical reasoning and other literary arts. While he was living sensibly among the other young schoolboys, he did not enter into the easy ways (Mt 7:13) ofthe world but avoided loose living by such hard studying that he fled from the venom of the serpent (Ps 58:4) and the deadly pestilence. While adolescents of his age pursued idle public spectacles, as all in that age group are apt to do, he withdrew into the inner chamber of his own soul, writing or reading or profitably meditating. He sought to avert his eyes so he would not see empty things, for he thirsted for revival in the way of God. 7. At that time his soul was already so inflamed by his love I. Ponthieu is a region of Picardy between the valleys of the Somme and the Authie. of religion that he began to dress like a canon regular,2 and, in keeping with the deportment and comportment of that habit, he lived so soberly and behaved so modestly that many of his fellow schoolboys jeered and called him a monk. Nevertheless the young man preferred to endure their hostile ridicule goodnaturedly than to abandon the purity and purpose of a good life and to participate in the deadly deeds of corrupt mankind. Divine Love was already influencing him by its inspiration, so that it strengthened his mind to endure their annoying mockery, separating him from the lost masses, and adorned him with the gifts of holiness. Thus until his twentieth year he mastered the disciplines of scholarship, and he acquired an exceedingly lively and penetrating understanding in his studies of the Scriptures. 8. Day by day he burned with greater and greater longing for the holy life (RE 21.1). That fire, which the Son of God came to bring to the earth, was kindled within him from that early age to inflame his mind, and, since that fire blazed higher every day and revealed itself by radiant signs of holiness, it could not be concealed . Indeed, who could conceal a fire? Then it grew stronger and increased so much that it tried to break out into a conflagration with larger flames. When it broke out and further inflamed his soul, it sought to lure him toward the goal of having him totally disregard the emptiness of worldly things and join the followers ofthe monastic profession. Divine Love acted this way, so that the shoot of the good plant, which it had pruned from love of passing things, would be grafted into the twig of a good tree. Divine Love did not want him to stay longer among his fellow schoolmen, lest their sinful and wicked example deflect his soul from its good purpose. 9. The young man yielded to the holy influences and did not put off what he felt impelled to do. He left his native Ponthieu 2. Canons regular were communities of clergy who renounced private property , observed a monastic schedule and rule, particularly the Rule of Saint Augustine, and shared a dormitory and refectoty (Lawrence, Medieval Monasticism, 164, 292). 14 BERNARD'S EDUCATION, SAINT-CYPRIEN and went to parts of the region of Aquitaine,3 accompanied by three companions of the same age, who ardently longed to do the same as he. These two-wheeled chariots rolled swiftly toward their objective; they encountered the king of the Franks.4 Bernard had a premonition and was moved to say to his companions then and there: "Hey, fellows, let's go on eagerly, confident that we will find the heavenly king, whom we are looking for, since we've found the earthly king on our journey, when we weren't looking for him at all." Led by the Lord, they came to Poitiers5 and stayed there for some time. By careful questioning they...